Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, ca. 1790-1895 Content and design by John Bewley

Leopold Meignen, composer, conductor, publisher, and teacher, was born in France where he graduated from the Paris Conservatory and was a bandmaster in Napoleon's army. He emigrated to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. In 1835 Meignen joined Augustus Fiot to form the music publishing firm of Fiot, Meignen, & Co. The firm dissolved in 1839 and Meignen continued to publish music under his own name until 1859.

Meignen played an important role in the musical life of Philadelphia both as a conductor and as a teacher. Among his students were some of the most prominent composers in Philadelphia, including William Henry Fry, Charles H. Jarvis, Michael Hurley Cross, and Septimus Winner. Meignen conducted the Musical Fund Society orchestra from 1846 to 1857. In this capacity Meignen directed the first performances in Philadelphia of the Second and Third symphonies of Beethoven, and the overtures to Weber's Oberon and Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream. Meignen was also the conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society orchestra during the 1850s.